


What Perception Filter?

by AYeti



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, First Meetings, Just a slight mention, POV Jenny Flint, Period-Typical Homophobia, but i mean, in victorian london, they're an interspecies lesbian couple, they're gonna get some flak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25884373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AYeti/pseuds/AYeti
Summary: Jenny spots a couple of the oddest strangers she's ever seen in London, but nobody else seems to notice them. She decides to investigate and it changes her life forever.
Relationships: Jenny Flint & Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint/Madame Vastra
Comments: 28
Kudos: 75





	What Perception Filter?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! I know in canon that Jenny and Vastra met under less than ideal circumstances, but I thought it might be fun to give them a happier introduction. I'm in the process of writing a multichapter fic about them, and this was one of the ways I thought I might introduce them. I decided to go with something canon-compliant in my other story, but thought you might enjoy this!

Jenny gaped at the odd strangers walking down the street. She looked around to see if anyone else had noticed their presence, but nobody seemed to mind them. The people of London continued about their day as if there wasn't a _giant green lizard_ walking through the market stalls next to a skinny man in a dark coat.

Jenny rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, but no matter how much she rubbed or how long she stared, the lizard woman didn't disappear. And it was a woman if her lacy dress was any indication, but high-class or not, Jenny thought she still looked out of place, being a lizard and all.

Lizard or not, she was… interesting to look at. Her scales were varying shades of dark green and protruded out of her head in a crown-like fashion. Based on the way the woman walked, Jenny wouldn't be surprised if she was royalty. She seemed regal-like; as if she knew she was important. Knew she was worthy of the space she took up. Jenny had never seen someone walk with such feminine grace, which was impressive because feminine grace was Jenny's favourite thing to notice.

There was one thing to do, really. Jenny followed the pair out of the market with as much subtlety as she could, and down one of the many small alleyways that littered London's streets. The noise of the markets faded away, and Jenny had to be extra careful with her steps so that they wouldn't echo off the walls.

"-Not all bad, Eh, Vastra? Now that you've spent some time with them?" The man in the funny coat asked as Jenny crept behind them at a distance.

"They are very different, and their grasp on the most basic of concepts troubles me… but I suppose they are impressive in their own right," the woman, _Vastra? Odd name,_ said.

"Oh, they'll be amazing! Give it a few hundred years and Silurians and humans will be walking the globe together in peace," he said. Jenny frowned. It sounded like they were talking as if they weren't human. The man looked human… if Jenny ignored his horrible fashion sense. Not that Jenny could judge, really, with her grubby scrap of a dress and newspaper socks.

"I wish to stay in this time frame, Doctor. As much as I miss my people, being with them in the past or the future would not be the same as living with my lost sisters. It would make me feel more lonely. And… I sense that I am supposed to be here," Vastra said.

"You sense another Silurian?" the man, the Doctor, asked.

"Not quite. I sense that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, and whether it is true or not, it is a comfortable feeling," Vastra said. Jenny wasn't sure if they were mad or if she was, but the strangers talked of traveling in time and, if Jenny guessed correctly, lost lizard people. A pang of empathy struck Jenny's heart. It sounded like Vastra was alone in London without any of her family… Jenny could relate to that. Despite her being a green woman, she seemed kind enough, and Jenny thought she might offer friendship. Even if Jenny was just a scrubby street rat, she was still a good person.

In her musings, Jenny didn't notice the empty mug of ale someone had abandoned in the dark alley. She tripped over it, causing several clangs of metal to echo off the walls.

"We are being followed," Vastra said, and she stood taller than she did before and turned her head in Jenny's direction.

"Ah, could just be a cat," the doctor waved off and Vastra sniffed the air.

"No… not a cat. An ape," Vastra said, and Jenny thought that was quite rude, so she pushed herself off of the ground, dusted off her hands and walked out of the shadows she'd been hiding in.

"We prefer to be called humans, thank you," Jenny scoffed as she wiped her hands on her skirts and lifted her chin. Lizard queen or no, Jenny deserved respect, even if she _was_ homeless.

"Don't you know it's dangerous to follow strangers down dark alleyways?" Vastra asked and Jenny pursed her lips. She hadn't considered that a lizard person might be dangerous, and that was an embarrassing oversight, but in her wonderings about Vastra, she'd forgotten to think about it. She hadn't seemed interested in hurting anybody in the market and, if anything, London was more a danger to Vastra. Based on what Vastra and her doctor friend had been talking about, Jenny didn't think she was in any danger so she shrugged and decided to tell the truth.

"Well, it's not every day I see a lizard person in the market, next to a man dressed like that, no less. Beggin' your pardon, sir," Jenny added with a slight bow to her head and they both stared at her for a moment.

"You can see her?" the man asked and Jenny rolled her eyes. He was almost definitely mad.

"Well she's not exactly hidden, is she?" Jenny chuckled and wondered again why nobody else had noticed Vastra. "I mean, the clothes alone seem a bit fancy for this end of town, and besides, she is a _lizard!"_ Jenny waved her hands around as she spoke. Had nobody else noticed that Vastra was a lizard? Perhaps it was Jenny that was going mad.

"If I can't call you an ape, you certainly can't call me a lizard," Vastra said, and Jenny grinned at her.

"Right, fair is fair. What can I call you then, ma'am?" Jenny asked.

"Oh. You even notice that I am a female. What a surprise," Vastra said. Jenny took in her dark dress, the elegance in which Vastra stood, and, now that Vastra was facing her, Jenny could see just how blue her eyes were.

"Oh, I definitely noticed," Jenny smirked and Vastra tilted her head to the side. "Jenny Flint, at your service." Jenny curtsied for good measure.

"I am Madame Vastra, and this is the Doctor," Madame Vastra said with a gesture to the man and he smiled.

"He's a doctor? Seems a bit mad for one. Is he a doctor for… your kind of people?" Jenny asked, careful not to say lizard.

"Yep! That's me! Mad doctor for the lizard people, look, I've got credentials!" the Doctor said and walked over to Jenny with a leather holder with a couple of blank bits of paper in it. Jenny glanced between the paper and the Doctor a couple of times. He was definitely mad.

"That's blank, sir," Jenny murmured so as not to embarrass him, and he groaned with a large roll of his eyes.

"Victorian London and its illiteracy!" He complained.

"Oi, I can read fine, thank you," Jenny leveled him with her best glare. He looked between her and his blank paper a couple of times.

"Look at that," he said and Vastra approached behind him.

"Above average intelligence and the ability to see through my perception filter. What a surprise. She's intelligent for a mammal," Madame Vastra said and Jenny scoffed.

"You're both being quite rude, you know."

"Me? That doesn't sound like me," the Doctor said and Vastra sent him a look before she turned back to Jenny.

"What on Earth would possess you to follow a dangerous Silurian and a mad man down an alleyway?" Vastra asked, and she and Jenny both ignored the Doctor's indignation at being called mad.

"Thought I might learn something," Jenny shrugged.

"And did you?" Madame Vastra asked and Jenny's eyes widened as she nodded.

"Blimey, did I ever. Unless you're both mad, or I'm mad, then time travel is real and so are lizar- Silurians. And you both talk like you ain't from here, here being Earth, not London, so that means aliens are real too!"

"Is this not distressing to you? The world as you know it has just been destroyed in a matter of minutes," Madame Vastra said and she glanced to the ground for a moment, as if lost in thought before her curious blue gaze was upon Jenny once again.

"Not destroyed, Ma'am," Jenny said gently. "Just expanded a bit."

"Does it not frighten you?"

Jenny frowned as she thought it over. What frightened Jenny was the thought that she might not be able to find her next meal, or that she might not be able to run fast enough the next time a group of men tried to surround her. What frightened Jenny was the weather turning colder and running out of matches to sell. What frightened Jenny was people like her family, who would sooner send her to the asylum or a reformatory school than they would care about her.

What wasn't so scary were the kind, old, brown eyes of the Doctor, who may be mad but seemed relatively harmless. What wasn't so frightening was the way that Madame Vastra looked at Jenny with curiosity instead of the malice most of London did. Jenny fancied herself quite skilled at reading people (it was how she'd stayed alive so long), and if Vastra and the Doctor represented what was out there, then Jenny didn't think it could be all that frightening.

"S'pose I might be cautious, ma'am, as I would be with any new situation, but I'm less afraid of you two than I would be of most," Jenny said.

"Then you are either very brave or very stupid," Madame Vastra said and Jenny grinned at her.

"Well, seeing as you already said I was above average intelligence, I'm inclined to believe the former," Jenny joked and the Doctor chuckled at her.

"Jenny Flint," he said with a small smile and a sparkle in his eye. "Jenny Flint, Jenny Flint, Jenny Flint…"

"Aye, sir," Jenny glanced at his cheeky grin and couldn't help but smile in return.

"The Madame and I were just on our way to the post office to put out a call for a new Lady's maid. Vastra lives alone, you see and I can't always be here to make sure she's blending in," he said and Jenny glanced at Vastra's scales. A hat or something might be a good start.

"Doctor?" Vastra asked, but he ignored her.

"Now, seeing as you're clearly fine with her being a big old lizard, I wondered if you might be interested in employment for her?" he said and Jenny's eyes widened. When she followed a lizard down an alleyway, she certainly didn't expect to end up working for her.

"I…" Jenny bit her lip and looked down at her raggedy clothes. She tried to keep clean, but the soot of London was a harsh enemy to have. She fisted her skirts a bit, trying to find a way to explain to these oblivious people that they were offering her something far beyond her station. It wasn't proper. "I haven't any references."

"Nonsense!" the Doctor waved off. "Clever, curious, funny… mad enough to follow a lizard about? You've got the exact credentials she's looking for," he said with a tilt of his head toward Madame Vastra who hummed in thought.

"It seems rather convenient to run into you on our way to look for someone like you. Since you have already seen my face and chosen not to become violent at the sight of it, I am inclined to agree with the Doctor," Madame Vastra said. Jenny looked between them in search of some kind of joke, but she found none.

"I've never been a Lady's maid before," Jenny admitted.

"And I have never had one," Madame Vastra said.

"Seems like something you two can figure out together!" the Doctor clapped.

"Will you be able to assist me in understanding your primitive society?" Vastra asked and Jenny bowed her head with another curtsey.

"If it would please you, ma'am," Jenny said.

"Well, that settles that!" the Doctor said and rubbed his hands together as if he'd finished a hard task. "That's my cue, then. Mission accomplished. I'll be off. Oh! And Vastra?" he called as he walked off down the alleyway alone.

"Yes, Doctor?" Vastra called after him and he turned around with a grin, but his eyes were very serious.

"Don't eat her," he said before he disappeared down another alleyway and Jenny stared at the empty space he'd occupied.

"Don't _what?_ "

**Author's Note:**

> I just love these idiots so much.
> 
> Again, I know this isn't canon-compliant, but I liked the idea of Jenny being able to see through the perception filter and not understanding why London wasn't freaking out about a giant lizard in their midst.
> 
> Anyway, reviews are love! Please let me know what you think! This ship is all but dead and I need validation. :P


End file.
